Synkroniciti is thrilled to welcome Australian writer and poet Jennifer Jane Curtis with a moving piece of short fiction, “The Visitor.” Our narrator opens her front door to find her ex waiting on the other side, flowers in hand, the telltale tang of alcohol on his breath.
“In that moment, a world of love and pain passes between us—a universe of feeling. The turmoil of needing to turn you away and the wondrous warmth of recognition—of fitting together, no matter the wrong of it. Each of us drawn to the other, as certain as a tide reaching for its shoreline.
I should step back. Say, Go home. I should close the door. Twelve years, and still you bring me these feelings.”
Jennifer Jane Curtis is a West Australian writer of poetry, prose and short fiction. She has always loved words and draws inspiration from music, film, literature, and the natural world—the parklands, oceans and the shifting light of day. Her character-driven work explores the human condition, adversity, nostalgia and Australiana.
Jennifer’s prose appears in Verandah 40 (2025), and she was long-listed for the 2024 Furphy Literary Award. Her fiction has been published in The West Australian and Mindfood Magazine. A member of Karrinyup Writers’ Club Inc., Jennifer co-edited the group’s fortieth anniversary anthology, Fact, Fiction and Fantasy (2025).
She loves books and all things vintage, family time, being a grandmother, and creating and sharing delicious food.